Report of the Director of Public Health attached.

The Board considered the report of the Director of Public Health that provides a progress update on the delivery of the Making Manchester Fairer Kickstarter Scheme - Improving Health Equity for Children and Young People - Children's element. Making Manchester Fairer (MMF) is the City Council’s five-year action plan to address health inequalities in the city, focusing on the social determinants of health.

The Assistant Director of Education provided an overview of the Children’s Kickstarter Scheme. Based on data found that pupils attaining a ‘Good Level of Development at the end of Early Years Foundation Stage in Manchester remained lower than Greater Manchester, North West and England, and experienced a larger reduction between 2019 and 2022.

The Kickstarter scheme provided a three-tiered approach (intensive, targeted and universal) to holistic support for children and families was designed:

Intensive support:

• 10 schools (GLD under 34%)

• Multi-agency taskforce • Implementation from April 2023

Targeted support:

• 42 schools (GLD under 50%)

• Direct advice and support service

• Online launch beginning of July and implementation September 2023 Universal support:

• Access to drop-ins, training, advice and events provided by Speech and Language

Therapy and Educational Psychology

• Early Years outreach workers

• Summer transition read?

The evaluation indicated the positive impact the scheme had in response to the impact of COVID-19 on children 7 years and under. A second year of the project will be implemented and has been jointly funded by Public Health and Children’s and Education. This will include work to overcome cultural barriers affecting school readiness in some communities and ensuring families are claiming all the benefits to which they are entitled.

The chair invited questions and comments from the Board members.

In welcoming the report officers were asked if the lessons learned would be rolled out to school across Manchester. Members also recognised the importance of supporting families through early help and family hubs and welcomed inclusion of case studies to demonstrate the benefit of the scheme.

It was reported that the scheme has demonstrated the interaction between speech and language therapy and Social Emotional and Mental Health and the benefit of training for school staff and the benefit this has to children in early years. It was reported that case studies have been recorded as part of the data collection in schools.

The chair stated that further information on the data collected is available to members. The work of the Health and Wellbeing Board has helped to bring together the work of children’s services and public health and both areas have risen to the challenge set. Further work is required to achieve the ambition of funding the scheme as a mainstream provision and progress will be monitored in future reports. The chair also referred to the impact the covid pandemic has had on the development of children and will continue to have in the coming years.

The chair thanked officers for the report and the comments made.

Decisions

1. The Board note and celebrate the impact identified in the interim evaluation of year 1.

2.     The Board considered and noted phase 2 of the Kickstarter for September 2024.